food for a crafting soul

A Lake House Adventure … A Card … And A Bag!

Hello … bonjour! Hope you’ve had a good week … with at least a little time to be crafty! I’ve not had chance to get creative with paper over recent days … though I did have plenty of time the week before. Last Sunday, I was on my way home after a wonderful card making week away at the Lake House … yep, as you may have read on Darnell‘s blog, the BABES got together again for lots of crafting, loads of laughing and heaps of fun! Since then, it’s taken me a while … for my body to get over the loooong journey .. for my internal clock to adjust to the seven hour time difference … for me to get back into the swing of normal life … and it was all so worth it to spend time with these wonderful, fun and amazingly talented friends! This is a long and photo heavy post, so if you’re just interested in a card, please do scroll down, there’s one waiting for you towards the bottom! Otherwise, let me share a picture or two of our trip (courtesy of Darnell … thanks, mon amie!) … and if you’d like any more background, you can always go here for the original story two years ago.

We were blessed with beautiful autumn days almost all week … which brought these little albino squirrels out to play (we were sure this was Snowflake and her family … check out our last visit for more details about Snowflake!) … and ended with the loveliest sunsets, seen from our crafting table.

We had heaps of messy fun when Darnell shared with us her tips and tricks on using Brusho’s to create delicious backgrounds … and Ardyth showed us how she uses Magenta Colour Bursts for lovely loose watercolouring. Both products are similar and create the most amazing effects. Here are Geri and Bev playing (note the gloved hands and covered kitchen island … I did say it was messy!) … you can just see my gloved hands bottom left, about to start work on a card I’ll share in another post soon.

Oh … and we did lots and lots of card making … there were so many finished cards between us at the end of the week … and a whole heap of others part way through. I got my Christmas card designs done … and did lots of the prep for getting them completed and ready to send out in plenty of time this year! We shared ideas and techniques with one another and had chance to use one another’s goodies as well as our own, as we created our way through the whole seven days! It was another memorable and to-be-long-treasured time … thank you so much, ladies, from my heart!

So, how about a Lake House card …

These gorgeous blooms are from Concord & 9th … stamped and white heat embossed direct onto a card base. I sponged over a layer of Distress Ink to start and then went to work adding water and dropping more ink in and around the flowers and leaves, till I was happy with the soft watercolour look. I cut a card panel and a piece of craft foam with a stitched circle die from MFT, and stacked them over the inked flowers. The sentiment is from Papertrey, cut three times in card to match the inks … stacked and topped with white, and adhered across the card front. Voilà!

This was made with a Lawnfawn die … and decorated with some newly acquired snowflake dies from SSS to go with the patterned paper (thanks for taking delivery, Bev!). The bigger one was cut in glitter card, the smaller one was cut twice in vellum. I adhered them all together at the centre, added a white bling to cover the join, popped them on the bag and topped the vellum with some Spectrum Noir clear sparkle. When the sparkle dried, the vellum snowflakes had curled up to make themselves all dimensional … what a happy surprise!

42 thoughts on “A Lake House Adventure … A Card … And A Bag!”

Welcome back, Anita! Thanks so much for sharing your lovely photos with us! There is nothing better than getting together with crafty friends, and the gorgeous scenery at the Lakehouse must have made it sheer perfection for all of you!
Your card is absolutely beautiful! I love your choice of flowers and sentiment, and the color palette is so pretty! Love your charming snowflake gift bag, too! It looks like you’re on a roll ~ I can’t wait to see more from your ‘Lakehouse Adventure’ ~ Hugs, Barb

All one has to do is look at these happy faces to know that you enjoyed every moment of your time together again! Gorgeous stamping – so glad you were able to get your hands on that C&9th set, Anita … Bobby was right when she said it is becoming a favorite of mine! Cute little bag for treats, too! JOY indeed!!!
=]

It sounds like you had the most amazing time! Crafting buddies are the best ❤ And I love your card. The colours work perfectly for this design, giving such a soft and elegant feel. Absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for playing along with us at Seven Hills Crafts 🙂

It’s so nice to see your happy faces as you enjoy crafting together, Anita. Your floral card is spectacular with it’s various shades of ink being resisted by those lovely flowers. I love the little gift bag and it’s adornment.

Wonderful to see pictures of your week with the Babes. You girls sure have fun! 🙂 And what a lovely view you had all week long. Gorgeous colours with your white embossed circle of flowers Anita. And the layered snowflake on your gift bag is so pretty. Aren’t happy accidents the best??!! … the vellum layers add so much wonderful dimension from curling up after being blinged. xx

How wonderful for all of you crafty ladies to get together and what a picturesque place too!! The smiles on those pretty faces say it all. Your card is beautiful Anita. Love the colors. So perfect for a lake house card!!

You created a beautiful recap of our BABES II, Anita! I do have to say, however, your beautiful card is even more spectacular in person! Thank you again for embossing a couple of images for me to play with using your inspiration. And your treat bag is WOWZA! I dare say it’s lovelier than anything that could be inside it! The sweet 3D snowflake is perfect with that pretty snowflake PP!! MYALYIMA!! See you soon! Hugs, Darnell xxoo

So glad you fabulous women had another chance to get together and inspire each other!!! I have to say that your card made my heart skip a beat when I first saw it – it is soooo beautiful!!! Your gift bag is also gorgeous and would have to agree with Darnell – dare say it’s lovelier than anything that could be inside it.

How lovely to read about your Babes reunion, Anita – what a treat to spend time in person with such a talented and lovely group of crafters! I hope you have finally readjusted to ‘normal’ life 🙂 I absolutely love your card – I have just bought that gorgeous stamp set and have yet to ink it up. Love the colours you have used and the way you have framed the image with the aperture.

Oh how fun for your and your friends. Looks like a spectacular time filled with fun, laughter and a bit of creativity to boot! Such special times and wonderful memories to last a lifetime. Gorgeous sunset shot! Your card is beautiful. Adore those colors together and you did a super job getting those flowers to look lovely. That little bag is great, too! Thanks so much for sharing! Hope you have a wonderful week! Hugs!! 🙂

That were seven days to get so mch wnwrgy from! So special that you go all those km and had so much fun!
Your watercolourcard looks stunning!
And the bag is a perfect way to give a present! (The dies look beautiful!)
Hugs, Gerrina

OMGosh, I have missed so much!!! But I’m glad I didn’t miss the BABES getting together once again!!!! I love it and I love the photo’s ya’ll share. Looks like lots of fun with you ladies and I love where you stay at the Lake House, beautiful scenery. But my favorite is Snowflake and her family or at least what you think is Snowflake and her family. lol Your card is fabulous Anita! I am so loving the colors you used on it. And i love that sweet little treat bag, the snowflakes are fabulous as well. So happy that you BABES got together again, but I hope you can get back in the swing of things since you got back home Anita. I don’t know how you guys do it with the time changes like that! Hugs, Brenda

Sorry for being MIA, but now my e-mail issues seems to have ‘spread’ to my internet. I’m sooooo frustrated! Sure does make life boring without access to all the good people and fun things out in our cyber world!

Awesome post! Made my heart smile…can hardly wait for the next visit! Your card and treat bag look just as lovely as it did in real life! I’m off to tangle with MTS (our service provider) and see if we can get my computer issues ‘resolved’. Miss you tons!

Such fun to see photos of your get together! Glad you had nice weather for your trip too. I love your card (especially that lovely sentiment stretched across the bottom). And the pond of blooms reminiscent of the lake… perfect.

Welcome back Anita! How fabulous to be able to spend time with your crafty group of gals. I bet it was a blast. Your lakehouse card is so pretty and serene. Loved the post, and I hope you are back to a normal sleeping schedule.

Anita fabulous photos and looks like you had a fabulous time. You must be exausted not only from the time difference but the long journey across the pond. You DI Concrod & 9th card is beautiful as it that sweet purple gift bag!

Hola, Anita! What a great card! So pretty. I see that you came to my “patria.” (country) Minnesota is quite a ways away from San Antonio, but it looks like you had a great time. I hope you enjoyed your stay. I still say that you need to visit Texas and eats some good Mexican food and ride a horse (we don’t all ride horses, by the way) and attend a San Antonio Spurs basketball game and float down one of our may rivers on an inner tube. I’m just saying. ha-ha I would gladly give you the grand tour. =) As for me and my health, an MRI showed that I have issues in my foot (torn tendon) that may require surgery. Limping and over-compensating for over 3 years caused it. I was so disappointed and sad, but I have to trust the Lord and trust that He knows what is best. I’ve been in brutal pain for over 3 years and the idea of more pain makes me cringe, but if the Lord has brought me this far, I know that I can make it. Once I’m better, I may actually visit your “patria.” I LOVE England. Okay, and France, too. =) Have a great week, mi amiga.

Loved to see all those pictures from your Lake House days. It really seems like such an amazing trip. Love the card and bag that you made there. I am impressed that you got anything made, because I know that I never do much of anything except talk and laugh when I get together to craft with friends.

So fun to see pictures of your crafty get together, Anita! I LOVE your beautiful card, the colors look amazing with the white embossed flowers!! Thank you for playing along at Where Creativity Meets C9!

I am so happy for you girls that you were able to get together again! Your card is cosmic and the little gift bag very sweet! Crafting with friends is the best, right?
And I know how awful the jet lag is, wish we didn’t have to deal with that! Hope your body has adjusted by now and looking forward to seeing more creations from your time there!
Bisous!

Welcome home to you Anita! Sounds like you were all blessed with another amazing week of fun and friendships! Looks like beautiful weather and scenery too! I’m so happy for you all and what a group of wonderful ladies! Awesome on getting those Christmas cards done….yay!! Love the beautiful C&9 watercolor and and pretty treat bag with snowflake you made. I can feel your timechange tiredness ,I get that way with only a few hours. I’m sure you are back to normal by now. Hugs to you sweet friend!

Beautiful card, beautiful photos! So glad you had a wonderful time with such wonderful ladies! And I’m quite delighted you even made time to play along with the WCMC9 watercolor challenge. 🙂 I adore thebeautiful blues and greens you’ve used.

So glad you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing your creations as well as the lovely photos. Hope the cold is finally gone (mine lasted 3 weeks and still have a lingering cough), and the darn jet lag. Hugs, B

Your card is absolutely stunning! Love the colors and your wonderful resist design! Looks like you had a marvelous trip. How awesome that you were able to travel so far to spend some crafty time with friends. It looks like a gorgeous vacation spot as well. I think we are all a little jealous! Thanks so much for sharing the great photos.

Thanks for sharing part of your special visit with us in Blogland. Easy to see how much fun you were all having, and I’m so happy & pleased for all of you that you were able to enjoy companionship & crafty fun. Absolutely loved the serene lake picture. You’ve created such a lovely card (also enjoyed) and isn’t it amazing to play with these different products? I’m still finding that I like Brusho-s best, but it’s nice to have the different colors from Colorburst & Nuance. The liquid metal Colorbursts are nice too! Get back to normal…it’s hard when you’ve been away, and crossed several time zones! TFS & Hugs

Wonderful recap of our “Lake House II” adventure! There are such nice memories from this trip and they will sustain me for the next couple of years! Geri is right; that card is even more beautiful in person. And what a darling treat bag! LOVE that snowflake. In fact, I loved it so much it just went into my cart at SSS, lol!! I will be sending an email either today or tomorrow, as I have to explain about your b&w enamel dot stuff…. Right now, I’m going run along, as this rainy weather has delivered a whopper YKW…icky pooh. xoxoxoxo

Sounds like you had a wonderful time crafting up a storm with the ladies 🙂 Gorgeous card, love the mottled tones behind the embossed flowers 🙂 Thank you for playing along with our colour challenge this month at Seven Hills Crafts 🙂
Jenny x

I love seeing the Lake House posts from you gals. It looks like a fabulous time and I can imagine that with the likes of Darnell along for the trip that there’s a whole lots of laughing going on. 😀 Looking forward to seeing more of your gorgeous creating from the trip but for now I am loving this green and blue beauty. So pretty!

Oh my, I am grinning from ear to ear looking at your happy faces! I would love to do a getaway with crafty friends like that! I bet you had an incredible time! Love your gift bag and that incredible card! The colors are so lovely together! Hope you are all rested up now!

I’m wearing a mega-watt smile in seeing the photos of BABES Re-united! You gals look as young and gorgeous this year as you did two years ago; I can imagine the fun of the first time made for triple x quadruple that of the second. And Christmas cards pretty much completed? WOWsers! Productivity amongst the playing…gotta love it! Your Concord & 9th blooms are incredibly pretty; a touch of ‘spring’ colours to brighten my day! As for your snowflake bag: so pretty! A gift in and of itself! Need to bring my snowflake dies out, as ‘someone’ has a LONG way to go to get her Christmas cards done in time…
Hugs and love~c

Hello ... Bonjour! You're very welcome to My Papercraft World, a small space in blogland for sharing my enthusiasm for card making. Feel free to have a browse around ... and if you find something that inspires, amuses or interests you, leave me a comment to let me know. If you let me have your blog address, I can return the compliment ... and get to be inspired, amused and interested chez toi too! Anita :)